Nottingham v Doncaster Knights: Castle Park men look to end 2014 on a high

Action from Doncaster Knights v Cross Keys.

Steve Hossack

Published:06:00Saturday 20 December 2014

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Knights boss Clive Griffiths is hoping his charges can transfer their B&I Cup form to the Championship this weekend.

Knights, who topped their pool in the B&I Cup with six successive victories, travel to Meadow Lane on Sunday to take on Nottingham looking to end the year on a winning note.

“The 54-0 win over Cross Keys should give the lads a lot of confidence,” said the Welshman, delighted that the penalty count was in Knights’ favour for a change.

“What made it particularly pleasing was that in addition to scoring eight tries we also kept a clean sheet.

“I thought they shaded the breakdown and stemmed our flow a little bit, but we counter-attacked well and we put some things we’ve been working on into practice and played some quality rugby.

“It was nice to give everyone an early Christmas present.”

Griffiths revealed that the foundations for arguably Knights best home display of the season had been laid in the week leading up to the game.

“We’d had a very good week in training starting on the Monday, “he said. “There was a lot of honesty and we said that a few cracks appeared in the game against (Cornish) Pirates even though we won and did really well down there.

“We said we could paper over them or we could put some filler in there and that’s what we did.”

Looking ahead to Sunday, which will mark Nottingham’s last-ever game at the stadium, Griffiths said: “I’ve not seen them play this season but they are always a tough side to beat.

“I’m not certain what affect the fact that it is their last game at the ground will have on their performance.

“What I do know is that we’ll be going there trying to end the year on a winning note.

As I say Nottingham is a tough place to go - although it’s a good pitch - but we’ve got a good record on the road this season.”